One year of renovation data is a snapshot. Two years begin to look like a conversation. Comparing the 2024 and 2025 UK Houzz & Home studies gives us a useful, if cautious, view of how professional hiring changed between renovation activity reported for 2023 and 2024.
Some trades rose sharply in survey incidence
Windows and doors professionals increased from 32% of surveyed renovators in the 2024 study to 38% in the 2025 study, a rise of six percentage points. Flooring professionals moved from 42% to 47%, painters from 36% to 41%, and roofers from 26% to 31% — each a five-point increase.
Plumbers rose from 52% to 56%, up four points. Electricians remained at 59%, while carpenters stayed at 42%. Home builders moved in the opposite direction, from 35% to 33%.
The biggest mover was not the biggest trade
Electricians still had the highest hiring incidence at 59%, but they did not grow between the two surveys. Windows and doors professionals showed the largest percentage-point increase, yet remained below several other trades in absolute incidence.
This distinction matters. A category can be large without growing, or grow quickly from a smaller base. Market commentary often muddles these two ideas because “largest” sounds conveniently dramatic. The data is more interesting when we resist the temptation.
Relative growth tells a different story again
Measured relative to the earlier survey share, roofers rose from 26% to 31%, an increase of roughly 19%. Windows and doors professionals rose by about 19% as well, from 32% to 38%. Painters rose about 14%, flooring professionals about 12%, and plumbers about 8%. These are derived calculations from the published survey percentages, not figures directly reported by Houzz.
Relative growth can make smaller categories look especially dynamic, which is mathematically correct but easy to overstate. A five-point rise from 26% is proportionally much larger than a five-point rise from 52%.
What might explain the pattern?
The studies themselves report the hiring incidence; they do not establish a single cause for the changes. It would therefore be speculative to claim that energy prices, weather, house prices or regulation directly produced any particular movement without additional evidence.
What we can say is that several finishing and envelope-related trades appeared more often in the later survey, while electricians and carpenters were stable and home builders dipped slightly. That suggests a change in project mix is possible, but “possible” is doing important work in that sentence.
Why a one-year movement is not automatically a trend
The 2025 UK study surveyed 1,060 homeowners, while the earlier study referenced 1,848. The respondent pools are not identical. Renovation markets are also influenced by project timing, household finances and the types of work people choose to undertake.
For that reason, two survey points should be treated as a directional comparison, not a permanent trend line. A proper trend would benefit from more years, consistent definitions and confidence intervals where available.
Stable categories can still matter commercially
Electricians remaining at 59% may sound less exciting than a category rising five or six points, but stability at a high level can be commercially significant. A trade consistently used by well over half of surveyed renovators has a different demand profile from a smaller category experiencing a short-term jump.
Likewise, carpenters holding at 42% suggests steady incidence rather than stagnation. Flat survey share does not mean flat revenue, flat prices or flat workload. The measure tells us only how often respondents reported hiring the trade.
For businesses, the useful question is not “who won?”
The better question is what kind of renovation activity appears to be broadening. The later survey shows higher incidence for plumbing, flooring, painting, windows and doors, and roofing. That may affect partnership opportunities, referral networks and the kinds of multi-trade jobs firms encounter.
A flooring company, for example, may benefit from stronger links with painters and carpenters. A roofer may find more value in coordinating with windows and doors specialists. The survey does not prove those referral pathways, but the overlapping rise across several categories makes cross-trade coordination worth considering.
The sensible conclusion is directional, not theatrical
Between the two Houzz studies, several professional categories became more common among surveyed renovators, some stayed level, and one of the major categories slipped slightly. That is useful evidence of changing activity mix, but not a licence to declare a boom, bust or revolution.
Britain’s renovation market, like Britain itself, appears to prefer evolution with paperwork over revolution with fireworks.
Sources: 2024 UK Houzz & Home Study and 2025 UK Houzz & Home Study.